Winter 2010
Transcription
Winter 2010
A Bankstown City Council Publication Bankstown Message from SustainABLE Bankstown Does your wood heater smoke? There’s a lot happening in this issue of SustainABLE Bankstown. Council has again been very busy reducing its ecological footprint and we have some great tips to help you do the same. See how you can reduce your heating bill this winter, grow some great winter crops in your garden or where to grab some fabulous clothing bargains. You could unknowingly be polluting our environment and harming your health. Bushcare is bustling away. The East Hills Park Bushcare Group has been working hard to improve our natural environment. And don’t forget to check out the events for May’s Bushcare Month. Eco Schools are also helping to improve our natural environment. Both Picnic Point HS and Birrong PS have been doing some fantastic projects. See how your school can get help to boost your environmental projects along. Do you know where your rain goes? Find out in Life on the River and see how Council is trying to get the most out of our rain. If you have any comments, suggestions or would like to contribute an article yourself you can email us at sustainABLE@ bankstown.nsw.gov.au Stay updated on all the latest events or take a look at more things you can do to help the environment by visiting Council’s website at www.bankstown.nsw.gov.au. Happy reading! As wood burns it releases a mixture of gases and particles called air pollutants which can cause severe health problems for some people. If a wood heater is not working efficiently these pollutants are made worse. Pollutants cause problems both inside and outside the home. When fine particles from smoke are breathed in it can cause breathing difficulties and aggravate pre-existing conditions like asthma. This type of air pollution severely affects our air quality and is a very common problem in winter when particles float in the air and form an unattractive smoke haze. WINTER 2010 Edition 16 Pollution from wood heaters can be avoided. 1. Burn only dry, aged hardwood in your wood heater. 2. Never burn rubbish, driftwood, painted or treated wood. 3. When lighting a cold heater, use plenty of dry kindling to establish a good fire quickly. 4. Use several small logs rather than one large log and stack them loosely in your heater so air can circulate around them. 5. Keep the flame lively and bright. Your fire should only smoke when you first light it and when you add extra fuel. Open the air controls fully for 5 minutes before and 15 to 20 minutes after reloading the heater. 6. Check your chimney regularly. If there is smoke coming from the chimney, increase the air supply to your fire. 7. Don’t let your fire smoulder overnight. 8. If you are buying a wood heater, make sure it meets the Australian Standard (AS/NZS 4013:1999). 9. Insulate your home. This will help you minimise the amount of fuel you need to burn, saving you money. For more information on what you can do to use your wood heater better visit www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ woodsmoke How do worms fight climate change? Did you know that for every tonne of organic waste (that’s all your food scraps and garden waste) that is diverted from landfill, nearly a third of a tonne of greenhouse gas emissions are saved? In 2005 Council established a commercial-sized worm farm at its Civic Tower. Since then, our worms have consumed over 1¼ tonnes of organic waste - and that’s just from the kitchen bins in the Environment Section! We’ve also given away 87 kilos of worms, mostly to help schools establish their own worm farms, not to mention countless litres of fabulous worm ‘wee’ fertiliser used by staff for home gardens. Council’s worm farm contributes to a sustainable work environment. You too could be a champion for sustainability at your workplace or home by setting up your own worm farm - it’s not nearly as messy and smelly as you may think! Worm farms are available to purchase from most local hardware stores and nurseries. Celebrate World Environment Day with a FREE Movie! Home is a stunning visual portrayal of Earth. When: Where: Saturday 5 June 2010, 4pm – 6pm. Hoyts Bankstown, 63 The Mall, Bankstown. Only 160 tickets available. Bookings essential. For more information or to apply online visit Council’s website. 2 Council staff take steps towards reducing greenhouse emissions by installing efficient lighting. We want to hear from YOU! Have you seen anything amazing in Bankstown? Tell us about it. We’d like to hear about that fantastic neighbour with bathtub frog ponds or Parks Staff show off new fuel efficient blowers and mowers. A STROKE of genius Council is trialling fuel efficient 4 stroke lawn maintenance equipment for use in Bankstown’s parks. This includes all lawnmowers, brush-cutters and blowers. The new equipment is quieter, more powerful, and cuts fuel use by 40%. In addition, the 4 stroke equipment meets the strictest environmental standards, reducing emissions by 42% over the 2 stroke equipment that it replaces. The trial will look at how effectively the equipment works, how easily it is maintained and assess sustainability. If the trial is successful, all equipment used to maintain Bankstown’s 350 parks will be converted to 4 stroke. These changes could save Council 10,000 Litres of fuel per year. Information Sessions A great idea Council’s electrical staff have been steadily upgrading the lights at the Panania depot. The large compact fluorescent lights that are being used are the same as what you would find in your own home, only much bigger. These highly-efficient globes are rated at 125 watts and are replacing older technology lights rated at 400 watts. On an unseasonably hot Autumn Saturday, gardening enthusiasts gathered at Chester Hill Community Garden to chat about all things horticultural. Worm farming, recycling, no-dig gardening and organic pest control were the most popular topics of discussion with many tips and tricks swapped. Community Garden members were also on hand to give visitors a tour of the variety of plants on display, such as kumera (sweet potato), yams, bitter melons, strawberries, pumpkins, ruby chard, rainbow silverbeet, snake beans and peanuts. Prizes, including two new worm farms, ensured our budding gardeners left with smiles on their faces. SustainABLE Information Sessions will be held throughout the year. Check out Council’s ‘What’s On’ page at www. bankstown.nsw.gov.au for future session dates. This is one of many energy efficiency works Council is undertaking to save money and reduce our contribution to climate change. about those beautiful birds that fly into your backyard each morning. Or even about how your daughter taught you to save water and electricity. Send in your stories and photos to sustainABLE@bankstown.nsw.gov. au. For more information contact Robyn Young on 02 9707 9628. 3 Bushcare News Bushcare Volunteers at East Hills Park remove weeds allowing native plants to regenerate. Weeds are bagged and then removed by Council. Spotlight on East Hills Park Bushcare Group Volunteers of the East Hills Park Bushcare Group are doing wonderful things. Located on Henry Lawson Drive in East Hills, the bushland is heavily fragmented. With a patch on the eastern side of Henry Lawson Drive and several smaller patches situated on the western side, many of these bushland areas are spread amongst mown picnic areas and playgrounds. Fragmentation of bushland is a common problem around Bankstown and this makes it hard for native plants and animals to move around. Bushcare volunteers are currently working on the western side under the railway bridge. The vegetation is mostly Shale/Sandstone Transition Forest, an endangered ecological community that supports a variety of life including skinks, lorikeets, cockatoos and pied butcher birds. May is Bushcare Month To celebrate Bushcare Month and Bankstown’s biodiversity Council has organised two special events. Interactive Bushcare Bus Trip When: Saturday 22 May, 10am to 1pm. Where: Starting at The River Reserve, Revesby Heights, the bus trip will finish with a barbeque lunch at Morgan’s Creek, Picnic Point. Who: Prospective and current volunteers are welcome. If helping the environment is something that you feel passionate about then you should come. What: An interactive bus tour. During the tour you will visit various Bushcare sites and observe works being undertaken by Council with funding provided by Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority. The tour provides an excellent opportunity for volunteers to learn more about what is involved in Bushcare and to discover more about our bushland. Bushcare Meeting When: Wednesday 26 May, 6.30-8.30pm. Where: Memorial Oval Cricket Ground Function Room. Who: All Bushcare volunteers are welcome. What: This forum will provide a platform for volunteers to discuss the Bushcare program and any associated issues. If you would like to attend either of these events, please RSVP to Council’s Bushcare Officer Jessica Erskine on 02 9707 9999. Searching for volunteers The group has been tackling many weeds including Turkey Rhubarb, Paddy’s Lucerne, African Lovegrass and Bridal Creeper. A fire went through the area last year and thinned out weed species giving native plants the chance to regenerate. They are doing a great job and could do with some help! Volunteer today by calling Council’s Bushcare Officer on 02 9707 9999. 4 Bushcare is always in need of more help. Bankstown has a wonderful natural environment that is rich, diverse and unique. It covers approximately 525 hectares with 11 distinct vegetation communities and over 920 known plant and animal species. Unfortunately many of our bushland areas are being threatened by weed invasion, feral animals, rubbish dumping and land clearing. We are always looking for committed volunteers to participate in our Bushcare Program. As a volunteer not only will you learn valuable skills and meet new people, but you will see first-hand the results of your environmental efforts. Life on the River A garden with a difference Raingardens (also known as bioretention systems) are more than just your typical garden. They are designed to mimic a natural system and act as a sponge, soaking up large amounts of nutrients, sediments and other contaminants from stormwater runoff. They also trap litter and other large pollutants. Raingardens (a type of water sensitive urban design) are carefully designed using a particular selection of plants, gravels and soils. The plants in the garden soak up pollutants by using phosphorus and nitrogen for growth. The coarse soils and gravels allow sediments and pollutants to be trapped and cleaner water to seep into the stormwater system below. This cleaner water can then be collected and reused. The aquatic weeds choking Yeramba Lagoon will soon be removed. Eastern Long-necked Turtles are one of the many animals living in and around Yeramba Lagoon. Typically nutrients are a good thing, but excess nutrients from garden fertilisers, car-washing detergents and leaf litter wash into our stormwater systems and can cause algal blooms and growth of aquatic weeds like Salvinia. When this happens the oxygen for aquatic species is reduced and water quality declines. Sediments choke aquatic habitat and can block fish gills, and contaminants such as oils and greases from our roads can be lethal to aquatic life. What’s happening at Yeramba? Stormwater has traditionally been filtered downstream using pollutant traps. Raingardens are different because they treat stormwater runoff at the source, reducing the extent to which it can impact our waterways. If you are out and about over the next few months you might notice some activity in and around Yeramba Lagoon. Council has built our city’s first raingarden at Padstow as part of the town centre improvements. The raingarden sits at the bottom of Faraday Road, and will help to improve the quality of water entering Salt Pan Creek. Stop by and have a look - this garden knows it’s good to be different! •Trail markers installed around the Loop Track to encourage more people to enjoy the area •Bush regeneration along the drainage line from Amberdale Ave in Picnic Point •Aquatic weed harvesting to remove salvinia, alligator weed, water lily and water hyacinth •Redirection of stormwater over a specially designed and built grassed treatment area (called a swale) in Amberdale Reserve These works will help to improve the health of the Lagoon and surrounding bushland. For more information and to find out how you can help contact Jenna Hore on 02 9707 9700. YOU can help the environment! Register to receive SustainABLE Bankstown by email and help reduce your ecological footprint. Simply email your contact details to sustainABLE@bankstown.nsw.gov.au Above:Raingardens provide a natural way for stormwater to filter out pollutants before it ends up in our creeks and rivers. Right: Traditional style gross pollutant traps remove rubbish and sediments but do not remove excess nutrients. 5 Eco Schools New environmental group flourishing In August 2009 Ruby-Leigh Tonks and fellow Year 9 students of Picnic Point High School, with the help of science teacher Ms Kirsty Elwell, started a group to sustain and regenerate bushland and native flora at Picnic Point High. Funds for the Environment Environmental grants are available for 2010 to help schools become more sustainable. The Eco Schools Grant Program aims to involve students and the wider school community in projects that help to manage their environment. The Program selects projects that promote environmental learning of students, staff and the community, encourages sustainability and helps address local environmental issues. Ultimately the Eco Schools Grant Program would like to help develop ecologically sustainable schools. Case studies from previous projects and a list of successful projects and summaries are available at www. environment.nsw.gov.au/grants/ schools.htm To get you started here’s a list of some interesting past projects •Creating a sustainable vegetable garden •Reed-bed grey water recycling system •Developing a shaded sensory garden •Where are the bugs, lizards and butterflies? •Reducing energy use All primary and secondary schools are encouraged to apply. Guidelines and application forms are available online. Closing dates for applications is 5pm 21 May 2010. For further information please contact the Environmental Trust on (02) 8837 6093 or email info@ environmentaltrust.nsw.gov.au “In 2008 my science class was doing a project on plant growth. We were planting natives at the back of the school. I had been down to the creek many times before and always thought it looked really dirty and knew that we should do something about that. Eventually with lots of help and planning we got the group together. At the first meeting there were only a handful of people. A few weeks later we had a whole class full!” exclaims Ms Tonks. Every fortnight the group meets at the back of the school near Morgan’s Creek to clean and maintain the area. During this time students learn how to preserve plant life and identify threatening weeds that cause harm to the native plants and animals living in the bush. Ruby-Leigh explains, “we learnt how to water and nourish the vegetation of the school and how to distinguish and categorise insects and other small creatures such as birds.” Fellow member Hazel Klimczak is also excited about the group. “[It’s] lot of fun. We keep the creek free of rubbish but we are also doing environmental studies and monitoring with RiverHealth NSW.” Peter Fox from Bankstown Council visited the environment group to congratulate them on their success. “He gave us tips on how to help our wildlife” Ms Klimczak said. “Since the establishment of the group we have gained many new members who are enthusiastically helping with the project. We hope that we can influence others to be conscious about the environment and initiate many more environmentally friendly projects in the school and in the surrounding community” says Ms Tonks. Written by Ruby-Leigh Tonks and Hazel Klimczak (Year 10 Picnic Point High School) Birrong saves water Birrong Public School is doing great things to help our environment. In 2007 the school undertook a project to improve water conservation in the boys toilet block. The current project involves the conversion of the staff and female students’ toilets to a dual flush system. By making these changes the school will see a measurable reduction in water usage and costs. It is expected that students and the community will also gain further knowledge and a deeper understanding of water conservation. Also on the school’s agenda is the installation of spring-loaded taps and 6 connection of a rainwater tank to the girls’ toilet block to flush toilets. This will see the schools use of potable water further reduced. The toilet conversion project was made possible with the help of an Eco Schools grant from the Environmental Trust. Sustainable Living Swap ‘til you drop! Now that summer is over, most people will be stocking up on winter clothes for the new season. But what do you do with the clothes in your wardrobe that you haven’t worn for a while? And how can you reduce the environmental footprint of the clothes you buy? Recycling clothes saves resources, such as raw materials, energy and water, and means that unwanted clothes don’t end up in landfill. Most people are familiar with the dreaded hand-me-downs, but there are more appealing options for the eco-friendly fashionista: 1. Op-shops accept clothing in good condition and there are quite a few in the Bankstown area. They’re also fantastic places to save money as recycled clothing is much cheaper to buy than new clothing. Clothing is donated all the time, so with some patience you could find some fabulous and unique vintage pieces. 2. Host a Clothes Swap Party - they’re a fun way to be ecofriendly, enjoy time with friends and get some new clothes. 3. Online clothes exchange - there are plenty of websites where you can post photos of your unwanted pieces and either exchange with someone who has a piece you want, or get credits that you can put towards another swap. Worn or damaged pieces of clothing are great as industrial rags - there are companies who recycle un-saleable clothing, often collected from Opshops. Check with your local charity to find out if they participate. For a list of Op-shops in Bankstown, see http://recyclingnearyou.com.au Winter gardening The weather is getting cooler, which means many plants and animals are taking a break for the season - but winter can still be an exciting and lively time in your garden. A vegetable garden at home can provide a healthy and sustainable source of food all year round. Lots of different vegies, like leeks, spinach and peas, grow well in colder temperatures - so plant your winter crops now to keep your kitchen garden growing throughout the season. It’s easy to create a vegetable garden if you don’t have one already. Pick a spot that gets plenty of sun and is away from large trees. Turn over the top layer of soil and add some organic fertiliser. The best and most environmentally-friendly fertiliser is homemade - try using organic matter from your worm farm or compost. Short on space? You can still grow your own vegies in a vertical garden or stackable pots. A wide range of vegetables can be put in now and be ready to harvest in as little as six weeks. Now is a good time to: • Sow seeds of beetroot, broad beans, carrot, lettuce, peas and radish • Plant seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower and onion Herbs also make a great addition to the garden - oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary are perfect for winter cooking. They are fast-growing and easy to look after - all you have to do is use them. 7 How much will YOU save? As it creeps closer to winter, the days are getting shorter and the nights colder, and we find ourselves using more electricity. The average home uses much more energy in winter for heating. But there are many things you can do to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat your home. • If you’re cold put on a jumper instead of the heater • Close doors and heat only the rooms you’re using • Fit thick curtains to trap the heat in • Put door snakes at the bottom of doors to stop draughts • Use a hot water bottle or heat bag • Use extra blankets at night • Choose an appropriately sized heater for the space you need to heat If you do even just a few of these you’ll soon be on your way to saving energy and money. Visit Council’s website for even more ideas to save energy. Events Calendar MAY - BUSHCARE MONTH Sat 22 Interactive Mobile Bushcare Bus Trip. Visit other Bushcare sites increasing support for biodiversity restoration in the George’s River Catchment. BBQ lunch will be provided. Contact Council’s Bushcare Officer for more information on 02 9707 9999 Wed 26 Bushcare Meeting. A forum for volunteers to discuss ideas and issues with Council’s Bushcare Officer. Refreshments provided. Contact Council’s Bushcare Officer for information on 02 9707 9999 June Sat 5 World Environment Day FREE Movie (see page 2 for details) 4:00pm to 6:00pm Hoyts Bankstown Thu 17 Living in a Green House – Adapting to Climate Change 6:30pm to 8:30pm - Chester Hill RSL Contact Robyn Young on 02 9707 9628 for booking information Sat 26 SustainABLE Information Sessions 10:00am to 12:00 noon - Chester Hill Community Garden, Corner Waldron Rd & Hector St, Chester Hill Bankstown City Council July Fri 30 Schools Tree Day Free plants are available to schools Contact Peter Fox on 02 9707 9431 for more information Sat 31 Bankstown Bites Food Festival 10:00am to 4:00pm - Bankstown CBD Customer Service Bankstown Civic Tower Cnr Rickard Road and Jacob Street, PO Box 8, Bankstown NSW 1885 Phone: 02 9707 9999 Email: sustainABLE@bankstown.nsw.gov.au Web: www.bankstown.nsw.gov.au August Sun 1 National Tree Day 9:30am to 2:00pm - Carysfield Park, Johnston Rd, Bass Hill Printed on Australian-made, recycled carbon neutral paper ESD SUSBANK 05/10 Mon 23-29 Keep Australia Beautiful Week 8